Facemood For iPhone

Facebook isn't just made for stalking hot chicks, you can keep up with your friends too! But friends make it tough when they start posting cryptic, emo status updates - what do they really mean? Facemood for iPhone reads those updates and gives their updates a happiness and sadness rating.

What is it?

Facemood :), $1.19, iPhone. Facemood is a smart little iPhone app that tells you, through a super secret algorithm, how your Facebook friends are feeling at the moment. When your friends make status updates, the app analyses the words they use (dictionary definitions, word connotations from Urban Dictionary) and applies a point rating to it. So words like "great" get positive points, an 'ecstatic' or 'awesome' would get more. Saying stuff like "down" or "sad" would net them negative points. It all adds up and the app spits out how happy or sad they're feeling.

Trivial? Probably. But super neat! You can find out what the computers and equations think of your friend! If you always thought they were overly emotional, you have proof. If you thought people were too damn cheery, the computers agree. It's nerdy fun to have words translated to "quantifiable" numbers.

Who's it good for?

People who care about their friends. People who don't like to read everybody's status update. People who have a lot of friends they don't get to see often. People who like using apps that implement super secret algorithms.

Why's it better than alternatives?

It's certainly a lot funner than trudging through melodramatic updates or excitable reactions. Like, who cares what they're saying! What's their Facemood score? More seriously, the app has a customisable dictionary that lets you add in some group slang words and apply value to those words too. Most importantly it lets you favourite the friends you really care about (so you can let the rest squabble on in Facebook's maul).

How could it be even better?

The app is a good start but can get better with long term graphs (showing happiness/sadness levels over time), use push notifications to warn you when someone's posted too many sad messages at once, take into consideration multiple updates rather than a single one, make the app faster and stop displaying so many "unable to calculate" options. Basically, the developers should embrace the silliness of the app and run with it. There should also be an option to vote whether you agree with Facemood's rating so they can "learn" you up. And sometimes, cursing is a good thing.